‘Shang-Chi 2’: Simu Liu Says Destin Daniel Cretton Will Return To Direct Marvel’s Sequel

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February 20, 2024

As Disney rethinks and reorganizes Marvel Studios’ future plans, we’ve seen a lot of shake-ups. One of the biggest centered on director Destin Daniel Cretton, who was meant to direct Avengers: Kang Dynasty as his follow-up to Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. But Cretton dropped out a few months ago, citing the number of Marvel projects he already has coming up. And that led to some thinking Cretton might also exit the Shang-Chi sequel, which seems to have been put on the backburner.

Well, not true. According to star Simu Liu in an interview with CBM, Cretton is still very much aboard Shang-Chi 2. Not that Liu has any other information on the film’s status…

“Oh man, I don’t know, to be honest,” Liu began. “I mean, those things are so above my pay grade. I just want to continue to be a fan of it. You know, when I get a call of like, ‘Hey, this is what you’re in, and this is where you’re going to show up. And, this is when you’re going to need to be blacked out for.’ That’s kind of generally what tends to happen. But, you know Destin is such a special filmmaker, and we’re very happy to have him on the sequel. So, he’ll be working on that, and we’re really excited to see what he comes up with. I think he’s going to do a brilliant job.”

Cretton is also attached to a Wonder Man series for Disney+. That show looked like it was getting the axe, but is still in production.

Shang-Chi 2 remains a mystery, though. It has no release date, no writers, and no start date, which means it probably won’t arrive until 2026, maybe 2025 if they can push it. Cretton’s got a lot on his plate. I’m not convinced Marvel will go through with a sequel at all, considering the first movie was only a modest success and Disney’s been gung-ho about reducing output.

‘Save The Green Planet’: Emma Stone In Talks To Join Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dark Comedy Remake

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Travis Hopson

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February 20, 2024

Emma Stone in POOR THINGS, will star in SAVE THE GREEN PLANET — Emma Stone in POOR THINGS. Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2023 Searchlight Pictures All Rights Reserved.

Having already worked together to great success on The Favourite and Poor Things, we knew that director Yorgos Lanthimos and star Emma Stone were eager to do so again. Following yesterday’s announcement that Lanthimos will direct a remake of South Korean comedy Save the Green Planet, today comes word that Stone will be joining him. Not really a shock.

Variety confirms that Emma Stone is in talks to star in the sci-fi dark comedy Save the Green Planet, which Yorgos Lanthimos will direct. The story “revolves around a disillusioned young man who captures and tortures a businessman whom he believes to be part of an alien invasion. A battle of wits ensues between the captor, his devoted girlfriend, the businessman and a private detective.”

The report suggests that Stone’s role could be a supporting one and not the lead.

An earlier version of the film was to be directed by Jang Joon-hwan who did the original movie, from a script by Will Tracy (The Menu) that is likely to be rewritten.

This is the sixth collaboration between Lanthimos and Stone, who have Kinds of Kindness coming up later this year. Filming on Save the Green Planet is to begin this summer.

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Trailer: The Journey To Restore Balance To The World Begins This Week On Netflix

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Travis Hopson

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February 20, 2024

With just a couple of days before the arrival of Netflix’s live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender, the streamer isn’t taking any risks. They know this could be their next big series, possibly the biggest ever, and the amount of trailers and promos for it shows the amount of attention being paid. Case in point, one final trailer to get fans hyped for the journey of Aang as he masters the four elements to restore balance to the world.

Of course, the animated series is one of the all-time greats that launched an entire franchise. But there are still far too many who remember M. Night Shyamalan’s failed movie in 2010, and Netflix does NOT want you to associate this with that.

The new show stars Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio, Ian Ousley, Dallas Liu, Ken Leung, with Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Daniel Dae Kim. Albert Kim (Sleepy Hollow) is creator, exec-producer, and showrunner.

Here’s the synopsis: Water. Earth. Fire. Air. The four nations once lived in harmony, with the Avatar, master of all four elements, keeping peace between them. But everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked and wiped out the Air Nomads, the first step taken by the firebenders towards conquering the world. With the current incarnation of the Avatar yet to emerge, the world has lost hope. But like a light in the darkness, hope springs forth when Aang (Gordon Cormier), a young Air Nomad — and the last of his kind — reawakens to take his rightful place as the next Avatar. Alongside his newfound friends Sokka (Ian Ousley) and Katara (Kiawentiio), siblings and members of the Southern Water Tribe, Aang embarks on a fantastical, action-packed quest to save the world and fight back against the fearsome onslaught of Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim). But with a driven Crown Prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) determined to capture them, it won’t be an easy task. They’ll need the help of the many allies and colorful characters they meet along the way.

Avatar: The Last Airbender hits Netflix on February 22nd, with eight one-hour episodes.

Four Beatles Feature Films Coming From Sam Mendes In 2027

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Travis Hopson

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February 20, 2024

Sam Mendes followed up his acclaimed war drama 1917 with another accomplished film, Empire of Light, that I think was a bit overlooked during awards season. So what does Mendes do next in response? Not one movie, but how about four of them, all centered on a different member of The Beatles?

Beatles Mania has been in effect since Peter Jackson’s The Beatles: Get Back, and continued with the recent AI-produced final song, “Now and Then.” Apple and Sony are jumping on the bandwagon with four separate theatrical features, all scripted dramas, about each individual Beatles member. Mendes will direct all four movies about John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr.

Mendes’ films will “intersect to tell the astonishing story of the greatest band in history”, each told from the band member’s perspective.

For the first time ever, Apple Corps Ltd. and The Beatles have granted total life rights and full music rights to scripted feature. The plan is for Mendes to release each movie in 2027, which suggests we should start hearing about casting and production very soon. Sony Pictures is backing the projects and will distribute, as well.

“I’m honored to be telling the story of the greatest rock band of all time, and excited to challenge the notion of what constitutes a trip to the movies,” said Sam Mendes in a statement.

“We intend this to be a uniquely thrilling and epic cinematic experience: four films, told from four different perspectives, which tell a single story about the most celebrated band of all time,” said Neal Street Productions partner Pippa Harris. “To have The Beatles’ and Apple Corps’ blessing to do this is an immense privilege. From our first meeting with Tom Rothman and Elizabeth Gabler, it was clear that they shared both our passion and ambition for this project, and we can’t think of a more perfect home than Sony Pictures.”

How excited are you about seeing The Beatles’ story being told this way and by Mendes?

‘Civil War’ Trailer: Armed Conflicts Rips The Country Apart In Alex Garland’s New Thriller

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Travis Hopson

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February 20, 2024

Kirsten Dunst in CIVIL WAR — CIVIL WAR: Alex Garland's terrifying glimpse at a future America ripped apart by war is as strikingly beautiful as it is frighteningly possible given the current political climate.

It’s tough to deny that tensions are elevated in this country right now. The political divisions are more stark than they’ve ever been, and the possibility of armed conflict is at a high. Seems like the wrong time, or perhaps the best time (?) to put out a movie called Civil War that fictionalizes what it would look like if such an armed conflict that tore the nation apart would look like.

Leave it to writer/director Alex Garland to push those political hot buttons with Civil War. While much of the plot has been kept under wraps, the story appears to follow a group of journalists navigating the war zone as they try to reach the nation’s capital. Garland’s synopsis calls it “an adrenaline-fueled thrill ride through a near-future fractured America balanced on the razor’s edge.”

The film stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Sonoya Mizuno, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons and Jonica T. Gibb.

A24 will release Civil War into theaters and IMAX on April 12th. I’m curious to see how people react to this one. To me it looks amazing, and like an extension of Kevin Smith’s 2010 film Red State. But I also know that people are exhausted by the internal strife and may not want to pay money to watch it taken to such a horrific extent. We shall see. I’ll definitely be there though.

‘The Memory Police’: Lily Gladstone Talks Upcoming Sci-Fi Film Produced By Martin Scorsese

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Travis Hopson

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February 20, 2024

Still riding high after her Best Actress Oscar nomination for Killers of the Flower Moon, and the acquisition of her recent film Fancy Dance, Lily Gladstone is also looking ahead to her next project. The Memory Police will reunite her with Martin Scorsese, who is an exec-producer on the adaptation of Yoko Ogawa’s sci-fi novel set on an island controlled by a mysterious force that causes people to collectively forget. Some refuse and risk it all to maintain their memories.

Deadline caught up with Gladstone after a special Killers of the Flower Moon event, and she spoke about the film which has a script by Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) and will be directed by Reed Morano (I Think We’re Alone Now).

“It’s on an unnamed island at an unnamed place, unnamed time,” Gladstone said. “So it takes place nowhere and therefore everywhere.”

“The adaptation is done by Charlie Kaufman, so it’s labeled as a sci-fi, but in the way that [Kaufman’s previous films] Eternal Sunshine [of the Spotless Mind] or Synecdoche [New York] was a sci-fi. It happens very much in the subconscious mind and deals with, of course, themes of memory, authoritarianism.”

Gladstone continued by stating her interest in the film is “it’s the kind of story that could take place everywhere. I think anybody who comes from a world culture or a history where there’s been a systemic effort to erase your sense of who you are, your memories, your language, your culture- in this film, birds are disappeared because they’re deemed unnecessary.”

The timing on this couldn’t be better, with a few states making great efforts to erase from history the culture and contributions of Blacks, Native Americans, the LGBTQ community, and others.

Also coming up for Gladstone is Jazzy, a companion piece to last year’s drama The Unknown Country (review here) and a reunion with director Marissa Maltz.

‘Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die’: Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson & More Join Gore Verbinski’s Next Film

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Travis Hopson

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February 19, 2024

Where has Gore Verbinski been? The director of three billion-dollar Pirates of the Caribbean movies hasn’t done anything since 2016’s A Cure for Wellness, which I liked but seems to have evaporated. A couple of years later he was briefly attached to direct Channing Tatum in Fox’s Gambit movie, but that went nowhere. Now Verbinski is back with a project that is coming together nicely, with one Hell of a stacked cast. Deadline reports that Verbinski’s Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die will star Sam Rockwell, Zazie Beetz, Haley Lu Richardson, Michael Pena, and Juno Temple.

Damn.

The plot is appropriately oddball for such a cast and title. It follows a “man from the future” (Rockwell) who arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons (Richardson, Peña, Beetz, Temple) to join him on a one-night-six-block quest to save the world from the terminal threat of a rogue artificial intelligence.

Verbinski will direct from a script by Matthew Robinson, writer of the terrific Love & Monsters, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, and better-than-it-should-be Monster Trucks. He also wrote/directed The Invention of Lying. Robinson’s track record is such that I’m surprised he’s not directing this himself.

But then, Robinson doesn’t have Verbinski’s track record for hit movies. Verbinski also directed the excellent animated western, Rango, and 2002’s The Ring, both huge at the box office.

Filming on Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die is expected later this year.

‘Shirley’ Trailer: Regina King Plays The Trailblazing Political And Civil Rights Figure In John Ridley’s Biopic

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Travis Hopson

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February 19, 2024

What better day than President’s Day to drop the full trailer for Shirley, starring Regina King as trailblazing figure Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman from a major political party to run for President of the United States.

Chisholm, who has been a supporting subject in numerous projects, including the 2020 miniseries Mrs. America, has long been overdue to have her story told. In 1968, Chisholm became the first Black elected to the United States Congress, representing New York’s 12th district from 1969 to 1983. But that’s not all, as Chisholm broke another barrier in 1972 when she ran for President of the United States, becoming the first Black woman to seek a major party’s nomination for that office.

The film marks one of the final roles of the late Lance Reddick, who died suddenly last year. Also in the cast are Lucas Hedges, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Christina Jackson, Michael Cherrie, Dorian Crossmond Missick, Amirah Vann, W. Earl Brown, Brad James, Reina King, André Holland and Terrence Howard.

Here’s the official synopsis from Netflix: SHIRLEY tells the story of the first black Congresswoman and political icon, Shirley Chisholm, and her trailblazing run for president of the U.S. It chronicles her audacious, boundary-breaking 1972 presidential campaign.

This is a passion project for King, who worked with her sister Reina for over 15 years to get off the ground.

Ridley is best known as the Oscar-winning writer of 12 Years a Slave. He most recently directed sci-fi/romance Needle in a Timestack, and before that the unfortunate Hendrix biopic Jimi: All is by My Side. He has not found the same success as a director than as a writer.

Shirley hits Netflix on March 22nd.

‘Blade’ Could Be Delayed Until 2026

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Travis Hopson

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February 19, 2024

BLADE may have finally been scrapped by Marvel

Been hearing a lot of rumors about Blade recently? The Marvel vampire film was announced way back in 2019 (!!!) with Mahershala Ali as the Daywalker himself. And he has stuck around through all of the many delays, director changes, script rewrites, because this is obviously a role he really feels close to. Well, he might have to wait a while longer…like a couple of years.

Jeff Sneider at TheInSneider essentially confirms the rumors of another Blade delay as the film gets retooled, possibly until 2026. This comes just a few months after its current November 2025 date was set. Considering not a single frame has been shot, and production doesn’t even seem close to starting, this is unsurprising.

There’s an upside, though, because Ali is said to be happy with the new direction, so he won’t walk away like he nearly did last year before Michael Green (Logan) took over the screenplay from True Detective‘s Nic Pizzolatto and a host of others. Also, with Disney seeking to release few Marvel films each year, the only thing currently established for 2026 is Avengers: Kang Dynasty. Blade could take a prominent spot near what should be the superhero event of the year.

With all of these delays, it throws a lot of what we know about Blade into question. While director Yann Demange (71) is still aboard, it’s unclear the status of co-stars Mia Goth, Aaron Pierre, and Delroy Lindo. Actor availability is so limited that we could see any or all of them walk.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’ll believe Blade is a real movie when I’m sitting in my seat and the opening credits roll, and perhaps not even then.

Spider-Man ‘Silk’ Spinoff Series “Paused” For Retooling; Nicolas Cage In Talks For ‘Spider-Man Noir’ Series

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Travis Hopson

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February 19, 2024

It’s a rough time for Sony and their Spider-Man cinematic universe. Madame Web is out there looking like superhero trash at the moment; Morbius was basically a punchline, and the Venom movies…well, I think they’re overrated but at least they do okay at the box office. And Kraven the Hunter doesn’t look great, either. But remember Sony was also developing a Silk spinoff series for Amazon, based on the Korean-American character introduced in 2014. What’s the status of that, anyway? Well, it ain’t great.

According to The Ankler, Sony has “paused” the entire writer’s room from the Silk: Spider Society spinoff series, although many of the staff have been let go. Showrunner Angela Kang remains, along with an exec-producer, and the show remains in active development, reportedly to shift focus to a “male-skewing audience.” Not sure that sounds like a very good idea.

Silk is the codename of student Cindy Moon, who was bitten by the same radioactive spider as Peter Parker. The character has actually appeared in multiple MCU movies played by Tiffany Espensen, albeit in very brief cameos: Spider-Man: Homecoming, Avengers: Infinity War, and the extended cut of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

The same report does adding something positive, though, and it’s that Nicolas Cage is in “serious talks” to star in the live-action Spider-Man Noir series which, like Silk, is produced by Phil Lord and Chris Miller. Cage voiced the animated version of the character in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, becoming popular with audiences for his hard-boiled detective persona.